The Heritage Golf Reader: Volume I

The perfect gift or coffe table piece, this first volume of The Heritage Golf Reader presents a wide ranging

sampling of verse, short stories, memorable quotes, and jokes about the

beloved (and cursed!) game. Many famous writers are represented including

the creators of Jay Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, and Winnie the Pooh. The

identity of many is unknown. Presented in this first volume of the set are

stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams”, Sir P. G. Wodehouse, “The

Clucking of Cuthbert” and “The Long Hole,” featuring the Oldest Member,

Ring Lardner, “A Caddy’s Diary, and A. A. Milne, “Ten and Eight,” M. E.

Bradshaw Isherwood’s “Hobson’s Choice,” and “The Great Professional” by

Walter Camp and Lillian Brooks. The Fitzgerald story show clear antecedents

to the Gatsby characters Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchannan, and Jordan Baker. A

nonfiction contribution from 1904, “The Rubber Ball Controversy”, by A.

H. Doleman, indicates arguments about the propriety of new equipment are

not new.

Sixty two poems include those by Lardner, Sir Arthur Conan Doyal,

the legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice and the renowned course architect

A. W. Tillinghast. There are poems inspired by James Whitcomb Riley’s

“That Old Sweetheart of Mine” (“That Old Golf Club of Mine” by Henry

Litchfield West) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s the “The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner” (Rice’s “The Rime of the Ancient Golfer”). Many are golfer/writers

better known for their accomplishments in other fields. These include the

head of American Telephone & Telegraph (Angus S. Hibbard), the man who

introduced the curveball to college baseball (Clinton Scollard), the editor

of Harper’s Weekly and Life magazines, John Kendrick Banks, and father of

modern American football and inventor of the forward pass, Walter Camp.

Memorable observations include those by the writers William Wordsworth,

Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and John Updike. Memorable quotes from

Hollywood include those from Dean Martin, Phyliss Diller, Will Rogers,

Jack Lemon, and the singer Celine Dion. Presidents Lyndon Johnson and

Bill Clinton are also among those quoted, as is the great one, Bobby Jones.